LA-based CNN political contributor and author Van Jones, whose third book “Beyond the Messy Truth” hit shelves this fall, gained fame with his election night coverage when he appeared as a voice of reason during a tumultuous night. Also a social entrepreneur, Jones leads The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, Rebuild the Dream, Magic Labs Media, and The Dreams Corps, all of which work to promote social and environmental justice.

Currently host of “The Messy Truth,” Jones will get his own show in the new year when “The Van Jones Show” airs on CNN in January.

Below are Van Jones’s favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Shaka Senghor

Ai-Jen Poo

The explosion in the number of the elderly Americans will transform our society. This book shows us what we must do to ensure that the elderly and their caregivers—mostly immigrant women of color—can live with both dignity and respect.

James Forman

This memoir is culled in part from the actual day-to-day field reports of civil rights workers who risked their lives in the 1960s South. The author uniquely reveals the daily and hourly terror that had to be faced to defeat Jim Crow segregation.

John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

This is an amazing work of art and history—a three-part graphic novel that dives deep into some of the struggle, strategy, beauty, and brutality that defined our country’s Civil Rights Movement. A vital tool for people, young and old, to learn about the past and be inspired about the future.

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Grand lists is a curated arts site specializing in books and movies selected by 100 public figures and celebrities, ranging from designers, musicians, artists, actors, performers and directors, to politicians, novelists, scientists and athletes.